


Saint of the Sea

by Immerghensi



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Asexual Character, Au Inside an AU, Chaos, M/M, Matchmaking, No beta we die like queens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26518051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immerghensi/pseuds/Immerghensi
Summary: If Ten is the Sherlock Holmes of love, Kun is most definitely his Watson, and he can already feel his stress levels rising over the trouble they haven't  caused yet.++Crumbs of a bakery au and a flowershop au and a coffeeshop au and a 'my god, they were roommates!' au and a long-lost childhood friends au and a fake dating au all wrapped inside a matchmaking au. Also there's a wedding.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 8
Kudos: 79





	1. The Matchmaker's Son

**Author's Note:**

> This abbreviates to SOS and I mean mood
> 
> Also this is a duplicate of[ The Off-Key Ballad of Saint Sunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26499355).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fixing inconsistencies as I find them.  
> A/N wow rip you can tell I wrote the nflying version first I am just killin this and not in the good way

Ten is a matchmaker, or so he says. 

He comes from a long line of tapestry-woven love counselors from back in the days of the emperors. His maternal ancestors were the ones who sent people off into the sunset on glitter and unicorns and if that sounds kind of gay that’s because it is, Ten proclaimed, though Kun is starting to wish his ancestors were world-famous columnists or divinely-blessed pianomakers because his arms are getting tired. 

"The waitress is there.... I think they're getting dessert! This is great, Kun!" 

Kun makes a sound that should never come out of a human, and Ten looks at him in concern wondering if he's broken (which would be a reasonable assumption considering he's the lesser-known brother of Snap, Crackle, Pop: 'ow, my back, jesus fucking christ'), but seeing as he hasn't collapsed into a pile of pain, turns back to refocus his binoculars.

It's tough at this level of magnification. 

And while looking over a fence.

And while using one's housemate a personal stepping stool. 

It doesn't make much sense to him, why eavesdropping on two practical strangers would be a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but Ten is a bull turned loose in the china shop of love and Kun is the sorry sod who's been handed a lasso and told 'good luck'. This has to be at least the fifth friend of a friend of a friend that Ten has taken a shine to and now feels the unstoppable urge to find the perfect match for. And that's just in the year they've been living together. 

Which he did when they went out for breakfast at that cute little pastel soda shop that, thankfully, serves diabetes-inducing french toast that cured Ten's hangover from last night. 

The hangover was a last-minute gift from Johnny Seo's 'Holy shit, I'm getting married' party; a match Ten had also made and felt extremely proud of. Come to think of it, most of the couples Ten has put together have, in some way, connected back to Johnny, including this fellow who Kun can see in between the slots of the fence when he's facing the right angle. 

"What did they order?" He grunts, transferring both his and Ten's weight onto his other leg while regaining his grip on the knees dangerously close to his glasses. Ten's leg reflexively kicks out and it makes a loud  _ thwack  _ sound against the fence. Kun briefly wonders if anyone has heard it, and if an angry home or business owner appears threatening to murder them with a skillet, how he'll possibly explain this. 

"Not sure yet.... wait a minute...." Ten leans forward and almost sends them both careening into the fence, but he pushes them back off with the same ease one would have when opening the front door or locking the car behind them. "Oh my god! I think they're gonna share!"

That doesn't answer the question, but Kun is trying to astral project so he can stand there for longer. His shoulders are getting tired and he's going to be sore when he goes to the gym tomorrow morning, which means his back is going to feel like it's exploding the second he sits at his desk. But if the kiddos are getting dessert now, that means they'll be done in 15, maybe 20 minutes tops and get the check. Apparently this restaurant closes in 30, if the loud announcement from a waitress in a white shirt and black apron is anything to go by, which means that there's light at the end of the tunnel. Even if it  _ is _ a long tunnel. Words describing how cute the not-couple is rush out of Ten's mouth like a broken fire hydrant in summer, and Kun feels himself reaching the euphoria stage of pain. It's there that he stays until Ten leans over and throws them off balance and forces Kun to move like the cone in a game of human ice cream catch. 

“Mission complete!”

"Is it over? How did it go?" 

Ten grabs onto the fence and pulls himself up off of Kun's shoulders, then extends his legs until he's only a few feet off the ground, dropping the rest.

"They hugged! I think it's gonna work out!" he picks the binoculars off and brushes them off like they were an artifact. "Another successful mission. Ten and Kun do it again!"

Kun doesn't know why Ten says it's their success when Ten's the one invested and Kun is the one who's been dragged along as damage control, but it's a job well done, and it's time to go home. 

++

Kun likes routine. There's something reassuring about waking up at the same time, going to the same gym, driving to the same building, sitting at the same desk. Not much changes in the world of auditing, which isn't a bad thing even if Ten has it bolded and underlined on his list of creative forms of torture alongside ‘taxes’ and 'root canals’. But it's the reason that Kun can live the way that he does. 

The only thing that would make his life more perfect is having a partner. He has the house and the fence- if he could skip over the turmoil of dating and go right to the domestic bliss portion, it would be a dream come true. Ten says it's ludicrous how someone as smart and domestic and good at making stir fry as Kun doesn't have a match yet, but he has faith that one day he'll find Kun's Person, even if finding that person has taken four years and counting. It's a matter of do or die, he says, and Kun is quite certain this is hyperbole, but he lets Ten get it out of his system while they get dinner. 

It's in the middle of his second plate of tandoori that Ten gives him The Look, and Kun immediately regrets being born. 

"So you remember how that one we stopped by the fancy bakery? When that one couple who really wanted a mystical forest wedding asked me to find someone to make their cake and we had to go check up on it and like everything was fine but that's not the point- one of my buddies says he found a guy, sweet as can be, and he came to me for advice."

Oh no. That was a mistake. A wonderfully horrible mistake. Ten is going to make sure this ship sails no matter what, and that would be fine if it didn't mean Kun didn't have to get involved by proxy. Kun is the human equivalent of a 'Warning! Danger!' sign. One that can't stop Ten because he can't read. 

"So obviously I said ‘yes’ because Renjun is my son and a precious bean and the tit to my tat," Ten says, and Kun furrows his brow as he calculates how old Ten would have to have been for that to happen, "so here's my plan."

And Ten proceeds to lay out all of the steps to his dastardly plan of second-hand wooing this mystery man of Renjun's and Kun eats the rest of his chicken in mild panic and concern, after which Ten asks if he'll help, and Kun hears himself say 'yes'. 

Ten fist pumps and does a quiet 'woohoo!' in post-victory celebration, and Kun sighs as he pays the bill. 

++

"This is a terrible idea. I don't know why I let you talk me into these things."

'These things' refer to Ten wrangling him into helping with his obsessive need to set up dates between friends in his orbit that he just knows will hit it off while 'terrible idea' refers to his current plan of sending Renjun over to Guns n' Roses, a poorly-chosen name for an exceptional flower shop, and then right over to woo the man into accepting marriage on the spot. 

"It's basically a bakery au! What could go wrong?"

_ Everything _ , Kun thinks, but instead he shakes his head and asks if Ten is sure about this for hte 4,000,000th time, hoping that he'll realize that stories are stories and real life is real life, and those things rarely overlap and when they do, it is not in this way. Ten closes the passenger side door to the van and buckles himself in. They're on the way to the city to pick up some more inserts for Ten's rapidly-filling appointment book and to look at Pantone's new color palettes to see what will look best for the upcoming season, and maybe they'll stop by that one art supply depot and buy a few extra canvasses for Kun to keep in the closet in the spare bedroom. Maybe. 

Ten still has no idea what this mystery man's name is, and that's ok because it doesn't matter in the game of love, and Ten is a world-class player. He's frantically texting as they merge onto the highway and he gives Renjun an impassioned peptalk right before he goes into the cafe where his dream boy works, one which lasts long enough for Kun to parallel park the car just a few blocks from Flying Tiger. He gives one last 'good luck!' and hangs up the phone, taking in a big breath to replenish the oxygen he'd expended during his stream of motivation and letting it out in one stress-relieving breath. 

"What's the verdict?" Kun asks, turning off the engine. 

"I'm a little worried. What if it doesn't go well?" 

"Then it wasn't meant to be, and you try again." he shrugs, "but I'm sure it'll be fine. It's out of your hands now." 

Ten's gaze unfocuses from the dust particles on the dashboard he'd been inspecting. When he comes back, it's with a nod and a smile. "We'll just have to wait and see!" 

++

Ten is a wedding planner, which is a highly appropriate profession for someone as passionate and certain about love. Ten talks about love like it's a childhood friend he hasn't seen in years. One whom he built pillow forts with so they had the perfect place to watch movies late into the night. One who took him on adventures and showed him an old treehouse. Ten loves treehouses. 

Ten also loves touching every single goddamn piece of soft-looking fabric in the entire goddamn craft store, which means that this trip which Kun predicted would take no more than two hours is looking more like it's going to take fifteen years, and that means he's going to miss several episodes and probably the finale and ten year reunion of the show he wanted to watch that afternoon. A tragedy. 

"Kun! Come and touch this!" 

Kun touches something that feels like the equivalent of a cloud; like he might sink into it and end up in another dimension if he were to press too hard. 

"It's soft." He states, because it is, and Ten rolls his eyes and goes 'oooh!' and wanders to the other side of the aisle like a wool sherpa-seeking missile. He calls Kun over to what must be the millionth piece of fabric he's touched today, and Kun desperately hopes that none of the elderly ladies who have commented on what precious young men they are have any fabric-communicable diseases. 

It takes Kun a five-minute debate to convince Ten that they do  _ not  _ need another throw blanket and for Ten to agree. He already has one neatly folded over the room he's converted into his office that he hasn't even used as a cape yet, and suddenly Ten is proclaiming that he must, at all costs, blanket-cape himself the second he gets home. 

"Yeah, yeah..." Kun mumbles, "whatever you say, superman." 

And the teenager ringing up the small mountain of pens, binder inserts, stickers, and markers laughs; and the old ladies who commented on what precious young men they are laugh, and the random store attendant who greeted them on the way in and then did absolutely fuck all in the means of guiding them through the stationery labyrinth laughs, and Kun isn't so sure what's funny but Ten is smiling so he assumes it's just another one of those bits of humor he doesn't quite get and gives a small wave as they exit. 

++

The short version is that Kun paints his best when things seem like they’ve fallen into a deep, deep well where he can only see the sunlight through a small circle. His 'art' is hanging in the mansions of a few people even odder than Ten. It's how he was able to afford the eggshell-blue house in the middle of the quiet street and the cat and the lawn and the van at the ripe age of 26. 

If he could take away others’ pain and cover it with something beautiful, he would. He wishes he could. Ten traces the tattoos covering his body and says it isn't a bad thing to wish, and that he's kind and generous and thoughtful. Kun doesn't think he's any of those things, but he doesn't have the heart to object so he says 'thank you' and leaves it at that. 

  
  


A week or a month of the painting sitting in the room later, Ten will gather the courage to ask if he wants Baekhyun from the art gallery to come by and collect it. Baekhyun has been one of his champions, even going as far as to encourage him to take up art full-time. 

But Kun doesn't. He says he's fine with his job with his shiny shoes and freshly-laundered blazers, and that he'd rather keep painting as a stress-relieving hobby than as an actual profession, and no one can fault him for that. 

Ten eyes him carefully as they approach and then walk right past the art supply depot. He doesn't say anything, just keeps filling the silence between words with talk of what venues he wants to visit and how some of the catering places changed their options so he's going to have to schedule his visits before he can schedule the open house.

"Go on Wednesday." Kun answers. A flip through the mental calendar reveals little colored squares representing all of the things Ten has told him about and he’s quietly stored. "They have the fewest number of customers that day, and you only have the one consultation in the morning."

"That's a good idea. You're so smart!" Ten's hands flutter between smooth gesticulation and readjusting his bag and touching Kun's shoulder to tell him that no cars are coming and they can cross the street as they get further and further away from the place where all of the giant canvases are that he has no use for are and towards a circular hub in the street where the flagship skincare store is. 

Kun lets himself be used as a foundation-matching guinea pig, and he finds he likes that much more than thinking about all the painting he isn't doing. 

++

Ten gets the victory call in the middle of dinner, which is also where Renjun just came from after taking Ten's advice to ask his human question mark out, to which Jeno agreed. Kun quietly eats his stew as Ten goes through four stages of shock: 'oh no', 'OH NO', 'OH FUCK', and 'I'M FUCKED' while the voice on the other end makes some excited noises that sound like 'second date' and 'likes me too', and Ten gives him a ‘hahah that’s great’ laugh while his face looks like a kid who's just seen what's on those tapes their parents told them to never touch. 

"Isn't Jeno that guy-"

"The one who shared the lava cake with Jaemin, yeah." 

“But doesn’t he-”

“Jaemin works at Guns n’ Roses, yes he does.” 

Kun whistles, stabbing a potato and popping it in his mouth. "What are you gonna do?" 

"I don't know yet. I'll... uh.... I'll figure something out."

Ten's brow stays furrowed throughout the rest of their quiet dinner and as he disappears into his office while Kun watches the show he missed but luckily recorded on the big screen downstairs. Maybe now Ten will realize that love isn't something to be meddled with. That it should happen by chance, not by force. Of course this argument never works because Ten insists that all he's doing is creating opportunities and the survival of the relationship is dependent on the open communication and mutual trust of the parties involved, but it doesn't hurt to hope. 

But of course he's wrong, because Ten is a Chaos Cupid, and Kun is the demigod running after him to see if that shriek is because someone is trying to burgle the house or because Ten, for better or for worse, has come up with a ‘foolproof’ plan. Kun collides with four pieces of furniture before he reaches the office where Ten is scribbling in a notebook like a mad scientist on the verge of a breakthrough. 

"I've got it!" he beams, a wide grin reflecting the light of the moon. 

"Got  _ what _ ?" 

"We'll just put the three of them together!"

++

"It’s definitely going to work.” He says, and Kun knows better than to doubt him when it comes to romance. Ten is highly invested in the happiness of the people he matches and the ones he helps after they've found their matches. 'Even if it isn't forever, I want them to have today.' he said, and Kun had commented that that was a very noble thing to do. Ten had chuckled at that, possibly because he had manners or maybe because he found Kun so peculiar. 

"You can't tinker in other people's lives!"

"I'm not gonna  _ decide  _ for them, it's just... a tiny push in the right direction."

"It's a mid-sized shove down the stairs." Kun stresses. It's been like this for the past two hours, ever since Ten showed up outside his office in his candy pink punch buggy and announced that they were going out to dinner. He always does this whenever there's something wildly chaotic about to happen, and Kun always looks out the window and thanks the gods that Jaehyun runs hot and thus keeps the thermostat set to 'Cryogenics Lab', which is Too Goddamn Cold for Ten. Anyone who's worked in that complex is vaguely aware of who he is, and they all find him so amusing that they smile with obvious fondness at the eccentric young man waving with both arms as the accountant exits the revolving door. 

"Technicalities! What's the harm in putting them in a room together and seeing what happens? All we need to do is get Renjun and Jaemin to fall in love with one another and then introduce the idea of polyamory and then  _ whabam _ !" Ten does a whiplash motion with his fork. They're still in a very public restaurant right next to one of those doors that slides open when the weather is like today's. The couple next to them is going to have a lot to talk about when they get back into their car. "True love! Aaaaaaaand maybe they'll sleep together, who knows."

Ten rushes out the last words as though it would prevent Kun from hearing them. 

Kun facepalms.

++

They pick up discussion that afternoon and into the evening over dinner, aka Kun makes dinner and Ten talks while being of absolutely no help, and then Kun picks out the pitfalls in his logic between bites. There are a lot of those, but luckily Ten's got time, and Kun doesn't have to work until Monday. They go through several possibilities and Kun reminds him that kidnapping is illegal, seven minutes in heaven is immoral, and becoming a real-life Cupid is impossible.

"Have some imagination!"

"Do you actually want these kids to be together or do you just enjoy speculation?"

Ten throws up his hands, hoping the gods of happiness and rainbows and sunshine will show him the path to success. “We have to do  _ something _ !”

"Formulating functional Cupid's arrows would require unreal amounts of chemistry. It would take trial and error and error and error and  _ stabbing people _ . If you really want to match them, I'd suggest you pick something with a higher probability of success. Arrows are out. No, scrap that- arrows were never  _ in  _ in the first place. Try something like alcohol to make them admit their own feelings before you try throwing these varsity topics at them."

Instantly, Ten lights up like Kun has just just replaced a faulty resistor in his facial circuit. 

"That's a great idea! I knew I could trust you!”

Ten loads the dishwasher while he's on the phone asking if Jaemin wants to come out for drinks like, now, and tells him to be ready and to look cute in 20 minutes, which Jaemin argues is not enough time to look cute and Ten yells 'OK I'LL SEE YOU SOON I LOVE YOU BYE!!!' and hangs up. Several loud  _ thud _ s come from the other side of the wall as Ten knocks things over and apologizes to them like they were people. Five minutes and he's out the door. 

"Keys? Wallet? Phone?" Kun asks from the seat he hasn't budged from. Ten slaps his pockets to make sure he has everything and does a double thumbs up. 

"Don't miss me too much while I'm gone!" He grins, and Kun quietly finishes his plate, trying to remember what life was like before he met Ten all those years ago. 

++

The next two hours are spent hunched over a toilet, drinking Gatorade, and coming up with date ideas, not necessarily in that order and with some repeats. The only thing keeping Ten going at this point is the scheme to have everyone kiss kiss fall in love and the fact that he already said 'yes' to being Johnny's best man at the wedding, which means he has to survive until at least October. Kun tells him it’s a bad idea to matchmake while hungover and Kun is right, so Ten presses ‘send’ and waits for Jaemin to ask what time he wants to meet for post-night out brunch.

Kun drives him to the cafe and orders Ten a monstrosity called ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’. Ten likes things that are sweet. One time, Kun got him a whole tub of orange icing and he loved it so much he made himself sick. He’s still standing at the counter when the bell rings to announce Jaemin’s arrival, and Renjun exits the kitchen and enters the scene. 

++

Ten has friends, Friends, and Kun. 

He doesn't trust strangers to come over, but he trusts his Friends and they have what Kun assumes to be a splendid time engaging in an activity he doesn't feel strongly about either way. 

Kun doesn't have anywhere else to go so he leaves a window open for Daisy and takes Fifi (short for 'Fearless', because Ten wanted to name her ‘Velociraptor’ but the shelter volunteers talked him out of it) out for a walk, and if he isn't done by then, Kun will tiptoe to the coffee table and grab a book off the stack.

But sometimes Fifi starts barking in an act of defiance and Daisy, being the little queen she is, finds it to be the best time to knock all of the fixtures off Kun's nightstand and Kun accidentally runs into every piece of furniture he owns trying to get them to be quiet and the noise in the other room stops and Kun kind of wants to jump into a hole and cringe for the rest of forever. But today isn't one of those days. Today he's patiently waiting on the porch with a book in hand, having a grand old time with Agatha Christie and a mug of apple cider. 

"Kun, ready to go?!" Ten yells, because subtly is a glass, and Ten is an opera singer trying to make a point. 

A very confused Friend pokes their head out just enough to see him and Kun waves because it is polite. Ten says the appropriate number of sentences to construct a Friendly formality before he sees them out. 

Kun dog-ears his page, Ten inhaling sharply at the freshly 'ruined' page. "Where are we going?"

"I dunno. Ramen?" 

That's how they end up at their usual place with bowls of miso and tonkatsu, discussing the matches Ten sees on his chaotic horizon. Kun asks about NoRenMin, as it'd been abbreviated. They're still waiting to hear the final verdict, but Ten's phone hasn't stopped buzzing for the last 20 minutes.

"It's looking good!" He says. 

Kun hasn't told anyone about their weird thing where Ten entertains company and then comes right back to Kun without fail, but he has enough wits about him to suspect their relationship isn't the most normal, so instead he keeps his mouth shut and enjoys the update from his friendly neighborhood matchmaker. 

++

_ Today, 2:45pm _

Ten: Literally they r so dramatic 

Kun: Really? That's a lot, coming from you

Ten: Im not even kidding, jst burn my eyes 

The typing bubbles appear for ten seconds straight, meaning an entire recounting of how this couple came together, the details of the wedding, and the creative adjectives used to describe his immense boredom are coming. 

Ten: I swear!!! 

Ten: The grooms mom keeps looking at me all weird like I don't know what I did to make her so angry like lady all I did was find ur son the love of his life??????

The next few blocks are bits of text about how happy he's going to be once this client is done sprinkled with bits of emojis. Kun used emojis only when he couldn't find the correct word to express how disappointed he was. Ten used them like he was trying to win a game of Pictionary.

Ten sends him a voice recording whispering how once this is done, he's out. Gone. Toodles. Fuck this. He's got plans to set up one of the guys from Weishen V Fine Foods and Catering- that tall puppy, Lucas- with one of his friends who he met through a few other friends and absorbed into his own friend group before that relationship took a one-way trip to Nope Town. Kun can hear Ten's perfectly manicured fingernails tapping against the screen as he writes a note in his phone to summon one of the bakery boys so they can keep an eye on the date he's got brewing. The plan so far involves them going out to a musical and maybe sneaking him and Kun in to observe but that's tentative.

It's then that Kun becomes aware of just how long he was staring at his phone, and that there's a figure standing off to the side watching him. 

"Who was that?" Taeyong asks. Kun pulls on his mask of professionalism in 0.05 seconds flat. 

"Just Ten." he states, because it was, and Taeyong smiles like he's just been clued in to the answer to a cosmic joke, one that no one's relayed to Kun yet. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing..." Taeyong says. He slides the manilla folders on Kun's desk like he thinks it’ll make them invisible. It doesn’t. And Kun already has enough work to do, thank you very much. 

But Taeyong is already waving down Jaehyun, and Kun just sighs and calculates the hours until he can go home and ask Ten if he had to engage in a deadly joust with the groom's mother.

++

Ten once used his left leg to beat a man over the head. There's a lot more to the story, but the sentence begets a unified head turn reminiscent of cats watching a ping pong match, and that makes it worth the trek to Johnny's annual halloween party. 

Kun is horribly socially inept, and when people come up to him without his social liferaft to guide him, he panics. The costumes are a way for him to sort of camouflage without putting in too much effort while having something to talk about. The explanation of his costume inevitably circles back to Ten, who is a wealth of conversation in and of himself. 

Last year they went as Gabriel and Castiel and the year before that, Ten painted skull makeup on him so they could be Harley and Diablo. Four days ago, Kun (short-sightedly) allowed Ten to bleach his hair, dye it white, and curl it a little so they could be Crowley and Aziraphale. Sometimes he'll see a pair of snake eyes peering over the frames of sunglasses accompanied by a character-consistent smirk, and Kun will reflexively straighten his jacket like a bird ruffling its feathers, and it'll put a smile on the halloween demon's face. 

He talks to a girl who looks like she just got out of work. Her name tag says 'Pam' but that's not her name, it's just part of her costume, and Kun is taken on a long explanation of the plot of The Office, a show he decides he probably will not see because that genre is one he's ambivalent towards. They talk about some other shows too, like Forensic Files, and at the end of the night, the girl whose name isn't Pam gives him her phone number and says something about maybe hanging out some time, to which Kun nods and says ok. The party is wrapping up and Ten is doing his annual send-Johnny-to-an-early-grave hug which means he's going to come and get Kun within the next forty seconds. Kun downs the last of his cranberry juice and lets himself be dragged over to the small group of stragglers. 

"You never got a chance to meet Kun! He's like my soulmate, my knight in shining armor, literally the best. Kun, this is Sehun!" 

Sehun is tall and serious-looking. A bit intimidating. Kun can’t get a read on his expression. This may be because he's dressed as Slenderman. 

"Nice to meet you, Kun. Are you and Ten...?" He trails. Ten jumps forward as though trying to physically pick up the words and shove them back into Sehun’s mouth similar to the way the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz tried to hide behind the curtain after being spotted. Kun makes a note in his head that he has to put in a slip for 'The Wiz' in their 'What are we watching tonight' fishbowl. 

"Oh my god, no- he's my housemate, remember? The one I told you about?"

Sehun seems to not remember being told about this as he alternates between looking at Kun like he's a ghost and looking at Ten like he didn't know it was possible for two men to live together and be friends. It is somewhere in the middle of these question marks that Johnny insists that they should have another get-together before things get too cold, to which they all agree. It takes 12 more promises and 25 declarations of love for them to be out the door, out in the driveway, and traipsing through the heavily-decorated front yard to their vehicle. 

"I made a friend." Kun says, pulling out the scrap of paper with 'call me!' written next to a big smiley face. His van bumbles along the grass until it clamors onto the road. 

"Oh my God, Kun!" Ten laughs, "She likes you! She wants to go on a date with you!" 

"Likes?  _ Me _ ? What a terrible mistake." He deadpans, and the laughter gets louder and louder as they recount the night until eventually the remaining alcohol in Ten's system puts him to sleep, and Kun puts on music to hold the space. 

++

Ten is kind, and kindness is not a weakness. It's a generosity undeserving of assholes who want to take advantage of it, and Kun doesn't remember the exact words exchanged but he comes to in the middle of verbally annihilating four men with such ruthless efficiency that a teenager pulls out their phone and records him. He breaks down what's wrong with the situation, what should have happened, and what's going to happen until they get to their stop. He gives instructions a two-year-old could understand to the most pig-headed of the knuckle-draggers and wishes the quartet the most uncomfortable of silences for the rest of their long journey. 

He does all of this without cursing. 

Ten is clinging to his arm, fingers pressed into the tattoos of marigolds and violets under his jacket. He doesn't let go until they hand their tickets to the concierge at the desk and take their seats in the orchestra. He lets out a sigh which is cut short when a woman and her two children excuse themselves so they can shuffle to the seats on the other side of them. Ten takes a deep breath, still running on the fumes of the train ride, mind still stuck in that damned car with those imbeciles who don't deserve a moment of his time.

Kun taps Ten’s shoulder. “I think I see them.” 

Ten sits up in his seat and grabs Kun’s arm so he can follow the path of his finger down into the block of seats to their right where the tall frame of Lucas and the smaller frame of Jungwoo are leaned in close, whispering. 

“Oh my god! They’re so cute!” 

Ten practically crawls into Kun’s lap to get a grand total of no feet closer, and Kun can tell what he’s thinking. He’s thinking that there is goodness even if there’s pain. There’s beauty scattered around the barren edges. 

He believes in love. 

That’s the most important thing for a matchmaker like him. 

++

This is the fifth time Ten has seen  _ The Lion King _ on stage and the fifth time he's cried during ‘Endless Night’. He claims later that it's because it's so full of hope and it really just hits differently and Kun has to stop him because he looks like he's going to cry again. They're absolutely beat when they get back to the eggshell-blue house on the quiet street, so Kun tells Ten to take it easy right before he takes Fifi out for her nighttime walk. He comes back in to find Daisy having betrayed him by falling asleep on Ten, also asleep on the couch. Kun gives Fifi a treat and a pat on the head, carries Ten to his room, and makes sure that he has a blanket so he doesn't get cold. 

++

It was about his legs, Kun finally remembers at 3am. 

The knuckle-dragger made a snide comment about the spiral-patterned pieces of Nylon X Ten stands on. The ones Chenle made for him disguised as his senior design 3D-printable prosthetics project that landed him a patent and well-paying job in the same business park as Kun's firm. The ones Ten used to try forcing into shoes so people didn't see. 

It's been a long time since then. Ten now purposely rolls up the cuffs of his jeans because they're part of him, and he made a promise to be unapologetically himself. 

"People deserve to love themselves." He declares. 

It's then that Kun is overwhelmed with pride to be at Ten's side. 

++

Ten is both an unstoppable force and an immovable object of love, and Kun is good at running very, very fast. He wonders if he's made a grave mistake by suggesting Jisung bring his troubles over to the matchmaker.

"So tell me a bit about your hyungs." 

The guy is in that limbo phase where Kun isn't sure whether to refer to him as a boy or a man. He can't call him a young man because it makes him think of the YMCA song and he can't afford to be attacked by an unrelenting chorus from the Village People. 

"Should I... um... wait?" Jisung looks over Kun's shoulder to where Ten, in a grand display of time misjudgement, is anxiously babysitting his chocolate chip cookies while the timer on the microwave counts down from 3:11, 3:10, 3:09-

"I CAN HEAR YOU JUST FINE FROM HERE!" Ten yells in a way that tries to convince Jisung he doesn't have to speak up to be heard but does the exact opposite. The kid looks at Kun, who nods in reassurance, and that's enough to start the saga from the beginning.

"Ok, so… I think it started when Mark was a sophomore, before I even got there. There was an event out in the quad where all of the clubs got to show off to the freshman. Donghyuck was a freshman and he signed up right away. Anyway, later that year, Mark was his TA and they ended up getting really close. Donghyuck swore it was just so he could get the best grade possible, but he had this big plan in his head to dare Mark to come hang out one-on-one if he got an A." There are more words, but Kun is still in Old Man Recovery Mode and needs to get more sleep. He comes back in when Jisung is at the part where they went out for a silent disco and vehemently denied it was a date. 

"HOW DID YOU KNOW Donghyuck WAS INTERESTED?" Ten half-shouts from the kitchen. “LIKE  _ ROMANTICALLY _ ???”

"I don't think he noticed it, but he always mentioned 'Mark this' and 'Mark that' and 'Mark told me' and 'wait I have to tell Mark'. He had a lot of their pictures saved on his phone, and he would always message him, even outside our big group text." 

The cookie timer goes off, and Ten struggles to make the microwave stop beeping. 

"Hit 'cancel'." Kun instructs without looking away. The microwave stops beeping. "Continue."

Jisung shrugs. "That's all I've got, really." 

Kun's hands are open in an honest, non-threatening position as he leans forward. "How can you be so sure they share these feelings?" 

"You could tell if you met them. They're close with one another, even for roommates." 

There's a  _ crash  _ and a  _ thunk  _ and the loud metallic  _ bang _ of cookware. 

"My God!" Ten gasps, pushing Kun's shoulder like a sportsman doing the stiffarm to make space as he climbs over the back of the couch, "They were roommates!!!" 

Jisung nods and concludes the chronological retelling with the financially sound decision for the two of them to share an apartment. Ten asks if there was one bed, which there wasn't, and he eats a cookie in mild disappointment. There are two beds, and the place is very neat and tidy for two 20-somethings still trying to find enough time to eat and sleep between the onslaught of classes, research, and club. Donghyuck is usually making food since he's the one intent on eating a bodybuilder's diet and Mark is being pulled from meeting to meeting and needs the biological benefits the nutritionally-balanced meals provide. 

And after approximately ten minutes of Jisung going through the events of the past two and a half years, he finally takes a deep breath and looks at them with big, globe-like eyes. 

"So can you help me?" 

Kun would bet his house Ten has never said 'yes' so fast in his life. 

++

Ten is the Genius of Love feat. The Tom Tom Club, and Kun is his David Byrne who walked offstage for a well-deserved break and has thus left Ten completely unsupervised. The game plan was to stick together and watch them from afar but that plan has gone out the window because Kun is now in the Ancient Peoples exhibit and Ten is most definitely Not. 

Kun bites his lip. 

_ Mark and Donghyuck are more than capable of taking care of themselves. _

Backtrack to the hallway. Two options. He decides to go with the flow of traffic and heads into the hall of birds, which Ten isn't in either. Loop around to the mammals. Peek down the hall of reptiles. They were on a mission and missions mean no distractions, which is what cellphones are. No dice checking behind him either. Back down the stairs to where they were earlier. He has to be around here somewhere-

"Kun! There you are!" he says as though Kun were the one who wandered off and Ten was the one who spent the past 5 minutes frantically scanning each wing. "Come and meet Byulyi and Yongsun!" 

Kun meets Byulyi and Yongsun and their daughter, Naeun, who are here because Naeun has just discovered what dinosaurs are and is in love. Ten has this sparkle in his eye when he asks her what her favorite dinosaur is and she says the name of something neither of them will have any hope of spelling without Google autocomplete to assist them. Yongsun seems particularly thrilled at the two of them, and Byulyi gives them a fraction of a smile when she sees the way Ten leans on him when he's trying to be extra dramatic. They wish each other a pleasant rest of their visits and part ways. Kun turns his head to whisper into a nest of soft brown locks. 

"I was trying to find you." he grumbles with no venom at all. Ten turns and uses his hand to cup around Kun's ear. 

"Got a little carried away." His smile is that of an Old Knowing Thing and he somehow finds Mark and Donghyuck one staircase and half an exhibit later. They're in the gift shop playing with the stuffed animals, three of which they buy. Kun ends up buying Ten a [plush giraffe](https://shop.amnh.org/ecokins-plush-giraffe.html) as a souvenir from their successful trip, indicated by the happy smiles seen holding hands as they exited the museum. 

Maybe Kun will spend his whole life finding Ten.

And maybe that doesn't sound so bad. 

++

Baekhyun asks Kun to be his Friend. 

Kun is vaguely aware that he’s attractive. Ten said he was dad-cute when he wore his college sweater but became devastatingly gorgeous when he donned his business attire and cat-eyed glasses, especially when he straightened his jacket. This was the time Ten tried to get him to sign up for that sugar baby website, The Lonely Hearts Club, and then engaged in a round of fisticuffs. Kun accidentally punched a hole in the wall in a burst of horribly aimed strength. Ten put a frame around it and a placard with the date. 

“I’m asexual.”

Baekhyun looks shocked, then confused. 

“Does Ten know that?” 

Kun furros his brow. He  _ should _ . No one has ever forgotten the conversation, not when it comes with so many questions. The only people who ‘don’t remember’ are the ones who deny the aces and aros exist in the first place. Which they do. And Kun will verbally joust anyone who disagrees. 

But Ten isn’t one of those people. He was one of the first ones Kun told. Even now, Kun goes to him during times of crisis and Ten reassures him that his label is his to define, and that the way he feels is the way he feels and it’s completely valid. 

“He knows.” 

And of course, this is when Ten comes in.

“Uh…. hey guys, what’s… going on?” 

“Nothing, I was just leaving.” Baekhyun slips past Ten to the door. “Call me if you have any more pieces you’d like shown. I have people asking about you.” 

The door makes a resounding  _ slam _ as it shuts behind him. 

“Baekhyun asked to be my friend. Like a special friend, like you and Taemin.” Kun rushes out the last part. They still  _ are  _ friends, even if Kun has turned down his… uh…  _ advances _ . Ten furrows his brow.

“But… you’re asexual???” 

“That’s what I told him.” 

A proud burst shines in his chest. Of course Ten knows. Ten knows him better than anyone. 

++

Ten is the elusive loch ness monster in the sea of love and Kun is a shipwrecked sailor clinging onto a piece of wood for dear life. It's another successful match made in heaven. Or it's a 'long-lost childhood friend au', which is basically the same thing.

“You did good out there.” Kun exits the parallel parking space like he's going for gold at the Olympics. “You ready to go home?”

They’re still feeling out the adrenaline from jumping from hiding spot to hiding spot like a bad rendition of a Bond movie. Kun is going to have sand underneath his fingernails for the next week, but it’s a small price to pay. 

“Ten?”

Ten has that look to him; the sheepish one that always comes before he apologizes for not finding Kun's perfect match ever though it's been four years, which is a lot of years, despite Kun never outright asking or expecting him to. And besides, it's not like Ten's cosmic duty is to force people together and make it work- it's to put the right people in the right circumstances to make magic happen. If the second half of the magic act hasn't arrived, there's no show, and that's hardly Ten's fault. 

"I mean we don't  _ have  _ to go back now." Kun scrambles, "We can eat pizza and talk about boys like we're 20-something college kids."

“Talk about boys?” 

“Or girls, I don’t know.” he mumbles. 

Ten barks out a laugh. “What kind of toppings do you want?”

++

Sicheng and Yuta come over to the eggshell-blue house in the middle of the quiet street because they don't believe that that's where Ten and Kun live. They are pleasantly surprised. Fifi greets them at the door with aggressive tail-wagging and Ten talks to her like she's his firstborn child. They sit down outside for drinks on the porch which Kun has since decorated with flowers. Yuta makes a comment on how he could camouflage given all the tattoos. 

They'll have them over again for sure. 

At the end of the night, Ten pulls Yuta aside to give him what Kun assumes is a quick pep talk since this is all still very new and the last time he spent this much time with Sicheng, they were 10. Kun stands on the stoop adjacent to Sicheng, the two of them watching Fifi do her business and Daisy do her adventure cat thing. 

"What's it like being with Ten? He's so...  _ energetic _ . He's always got plans going on, places to go, people to meet. It must be fun." 

Kun furrows his brow. Yes, it is a constant bombardment of activities and cosmic missions and trips to local eateries to discuss nefarious plans, but Sicheng sounds like he's implying that they're  _ together _ -together. Not just  _ friends _ -togther.

Sicheng gives him a look. "Are you.... you're just friends?"

"Last time I checked, yeah." He turns back. "Why? Did something happen?"

"No, I just.... You guys get along well, so I assumed. Sorry about that." Ten and Yuta have the splendid timing to come back at that moment to rescue Kun from his own brain pouring water onto his drowning logic. They see Sicheng and Yuta out with a last farewell and head back inside to clean up. 

"I like them! They were nice!" he says, and Kun can see why Chenle refers to them as his Acquired Parental Units. It's just so  _ easy _ , so  _ natural  _ the way they move together, like two gears with the same pitch. Like they  _ should  _ be together. 

No way. Nuh uh. No way they would ever be a couple.

This is Ten they're talking about. It would never work- they just aren't compatible. Kun is a homebody while Ten can't sit at home for more than a few hours at a time unless he's asleep. Kun likes stories made to give people nightmares while Ten consumes romance the way he does coffee. Kun is asexual, and Ten is Very Sexual, and they've been around each other for so long that they're just sort of always together. The kiddies call them an old married couple despite not actually being a couple, but that’s just normal, isn’t it? It's probably all in Kun's head because he doesn't understand how humans work. Shit,  _ are  _ they perfect for one another?

Him and Ten... 

No. No way. It would never work.

++

It's impossible to reserve the entire Castle Court unless it's the dead of winter or the world is ending, but Johnny has become friends with most if not all of Ten's wedding industry friends, and they have no problem going out on a limb for him and achieving the impossible. The 15-acre property sits in the center of a dense forest shut off from the rest of society; a place where regal elegance and fantastical timelessness meet. Kun thinks the place is overrated- he'd rather get married in said dense forest- but if it makes them happy, who's he to argue? 

They're about 90% through the ceremony before Johnny starts bawling like a baby. Then the official announces that he can kiss the groom and it's like the dam has broken. There's cheering and a volume of noise Kun hasn't heard since he went to that concert when he was 20, but he's doing his part to add to it. In the couple of years he's known Johnny, he's never seen him this happy. 

_ Good _ . 

He deserves it. 

The party is loud enough to be heard from the nearest road. It seems like anybody who’s ever met the family is there. Johnny's mom has been friends with Ten's mom ever since the two were children and Mrs. Seo put a letter in Johnny's bag to give to Ten to give to Mrs. Lee, and she greets the matchmakers with full-body hugs. 

The off-key ballad of Saint Sunshine was a tipsy lullaby sung under amber lamplight in the arms of good company, and it was one that no one knew the words to or could remember in the morning. Ten sings it loud and proud, but then he’s yelling about 'a betrayal most devious’ as Kun's whisked in one direction and Ten is forcefully carried in another. 

He’s pulled through bodies and possibly into another plane of existence before he finds himself in front of the one and only Mrs. Lee. "How are you doing, dear?"

The first time Mrs. Lee met Kun, it was the week Ten had stolen all of his belts. He’d thrifted a pair of pants that were a little too big and a shirt a little too small, and after pulling up his pants for the 484th time had muttered to himself about how he needed a belt and had promptly stolen one. And then another. And then another. Kun was stealing back his belts to the tune of Ten's despair when Mrs. Lee rang the doorbell and Fearless started barking and Ten yelled ‘oh my god, that's my mom, COMING MOM!’.

When he thinks about it, that scene is indicative of his relationship with Ten. 

"Alright. Things are the same as usual. Work is work. Ten is still determined to find me my perfect match. I've told him that he doesn't have to do that, but if there's anything he's passionate about, it's love."

Mrs. Lee looks puzzled at first, then relaxes into an easy realization like she's heard a joke; one that Kun doesn't understand at best and is the butt of at worst. "So you asked him to remove you from the rotation?"

"I haven't said anything, I just..." he thinks for a moment about what he'd do when the day finally (possibly?) came. Kun finds that he can't imagine it. Not for the life of him. "I'm happy with how I'm living now, y'know? I like the way things are now. And if having a match is in the Big Plan then great, but if it isn't, that's ok too." 

"That's a wise way to look at it."

"I try my best."

The conversation meanders from life lessons back to Ten's apparent disregard for all lessons and his sheer determination to make things work. They talk about Mrs. Lee's own matchmaking clients- who  _ do  _ know what they're getting into- who exist on the higher end of the pay scale. She and Ten's grandmother still advise any royals willing to bend a knee and lend their minutes to old women. She has many clients at all times, and her list of successful couples is sandwiched between the pages of the scrapbooks she uses for safe keeping. Kun can see where Ten got his talent though. This puts a smile on her face. 

"I feel better knowing Ten has someone like you. I'f like to make a request to make of you, though.”

Kun sits up straighter, nodding. 

“Just... keep an eye on my son, would you? He gets a little...." They look over to where Ten is singing 'Take on Me' into a magically-sourced bouquet of flowers with no regard for pitch. "...you know."

Kun does know. He knows that Ten tends to gamble his happiness on uncertainties and that he can go a little overboard, but it's part of the reason why he's so loveable, along with his passion for making other people happy. He plans weddings with hope in his eyes and a belief in starlight. Hope is a fragile thing. People like Ten need people like Kun to keep an eye out for them. 

"I can do that." 

++

If anyone asks, it was Ten's idea. The cost-benefit analysis of giving up their seats on the plane and then taking a car home would net them $1,600, and it would help out two random people who needed to get home more than they did. 

Kun had felt like a king until they'd gotten to the rental station and the heavyset man behind the plexiglass grunted out something remiscent of 'what do you mean, 'modifications'?' and both Kun and Ten realized Ten wouldn't be able to drive. 

So now Kun is cruising-controlling down the highway in a two-door half-electric Honda Prius so he can be back at the house before he has to be at his corner box. The gearshift is in the middle of the car and not next to the steering wheel so he ends up flailing around for a minute and not finding the stick until he looks down. Ten keeps apologizing, wishing he could help drive, but rental cars aren't outfitted for people with plastic legs. The only reason his buggy has the adjusted controls is because he formally requested them, and that was only after many long hours of asking Kun to help him with the paperwork. 

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," Kun says, "It's not your fault the accessibility laws haven't reached here yet." 

"I know, but it's a lot on you. If you need a break, let me know. I'll buy you coffee."

Kun nods without any intention of letting Ten buy him coffee. 

Ten falls asleep a valiant three hours into their roadtrip. He was tracing the outlines of the flowers tattooed across Kun's arm and the tracing got lighter and lighter until it stopped all together. They're still a long way from home, but Kun is used to driving for hours on end. He used to trade gas at $2.00 per gallon for a clear head on the open road. He'd drive around for hours and hours on a nonexistent sleep schedule searching for something resembling peace. 

The sky looks different approaching 2:45. Nothing exists besides the deep blue morning and the long road ahead, and sometimes that small universe is shared in the overlap of headlights, momentarily, until they pass by and continue along in their own universe. But it's dark, otherwise. And he's comfortable in this universe with Ten. 

That’s enough for him. 

++

Jaehyun laughs at the obscenely dark raccoon eyes Kun is sporting when he walks through the door at 8:25; almost an hour after Kun stumbled in with his oversized thermos of coffee and proceeded to work on a form while making a valient attempt to prevent his forehead from meeting his keyboard.

"Long night?" he asks, waggling his eyebrows in a way that makes Kun sigh like an exasperated kpop group manager. 

"I haven't slept yet." he admits, hoping it'll provide some context as to why he isn't so keen on tolerating smalltalk, but Jaehyun just whistles and steers Taeyong over the moment he crosses the threshold at 8:30. 

"Kun had some fun!" Jaehyun crows. Taeyong has the decency to look confused and a tad apologetic. He observes the sorry sight fighting off his third near-passout, still sporting the remnants of glitter that will haunt him for the next two months, and Taeyong's mental lightbulb goes off with such force that it shatters and jolts him upright. 

"You went to that wedding, didn't you? At Castle Court! How was it?"

Kun feels himself on the verge of astral projecting. 

" _ Long _ ."

Taeyong cackles and calls him a riot, marching over to the Keurig to make what he calls a 'superior cup of coffee', Jaehyun towed behind him with the frown and confusion still frozen on his face. Kun is finally,  _ finally _ left in peace to continue his noble, solitary fight for consciousness at his standing desk for the next 8 hours. 

It's around 2pm when Kun reaches the runner's high point where he doesn't feel like he's tripping through 16 dimensions when he realizes what Jaehyun was implying. 

Kun sighs again. 

++

Kun doesn't remember the ride home. He doesn't remember getting changed and crawling into bed. He doesn't remember Daisy taking her place atop the other pillow.

But he wakes up sometime in the glow of a red evening to music playing from the kitchen and the smell of something delicious with spices and citrus wafting through the kitchen. It's enough to get him wandering out of the cave he calls his bedroom and down the stairs. 

"Ten?" 

Ten twists in his stool. 

"Hey! Look who's awake!" Fearless barks in what he assumes is agreement. "You looked really tired when you came in and went right to your room, so I thought it might be nice to get some take out. I'm just heating some other stuff. Sit down! It should be ready in..."

He looks at the clock on the stove, then his phone, then at Fifi with the 'oh well' look. 

"It should have been done five minutes ago but that's ok! It'll be done soon."

Kun looks at the boxes and controlled chaos overtaking the kitchen. At Ten looking into the oven at the tray still warming. At the bluetooth speaking singing I won't let you go. Maybe it's the exhaustion but Ten did this for him and he feels his insides heating up with fondness and the overwhelming urge to march over and cuddle him or maybe kiss him, though he knows he isn't that bold, which is why he doesn't know what to do with himself or where to put these feelings. 

"Oh- oh no! Why are you crying?" Ten laughs. It's a pitiful, small laugh. A 'please don't go, I'll eat you up, I love you so' sort of laugh. And Kun laughs too. 

"I don't know. I wasn't planning on crying today."

"But it's not sad-crying, right?"

His tears are heavy enough to run down his cheeks on their own, navigating past the fingers that try to wipe them up before Ten, who's the type to cry when others cry, can see. 

"No, it's not sad-crying. It's happy-crying. I'm so tired that this was the first reaction my brain could think of." 

Ten is a bit puzzled by that. He's always felt his emotions freely and known what to do with them. Kun's been envious of that trait ever since they started living together. Kun's more of like a bottle rocket, shaken until the point of... this. 

"Well... well then that's a good thing!" The hope is back in his voice as Ten dons his mitts and sets the trays on the table, expertly avoiding the utensils and plates Minesweeper-style. He sits in his own chair, golden retriever at his side, and surveys the feast before them. 

“Dig in!” 

++

Stuffed-to-the-brim Ten insists on cuddling every time without fail. It's almost impossible to get him to the couch so they can watch the latest episode of that anime they both like, and Kun spends several minutes failing to convince Ten that sleeping on a bed is better that sleeping on a couch, after which Ten whines that if Kun's so determined, why not carry him there himself. And Kun, with the structural integrity of a gummy bear says yes out of spite. 

Spite is a good thing. It gives him +3 strength. 

"Maybe we could go to your bed. It's bigger anyway." Ten says. This is the common debate after a night out, but wanting to cuddle wasn't a trait exclusive to drunk!Ten. "Or we could squeeze in and snuggle in my bed!" 

Kun's left hand goes under Ten's knees and his right hand goes around his back. It's like that one time they tried doing couple's yoga because the PT said it was a good idea, but it's much nicer. There's no laughing to the point of suffocation and no near-drops resulting in lives flashing before eyes. Kun carries him right up the stairs and drops him in the Queen-sized mattress he splurged on after his first piece was bought. He goes back downstairs to bring up Ten's toothbrush, hairbrush, and face wash (begrudgingly on that last item) so he's all set for bed. Ten bellyflops in and barrel rolls to make space. He steals all the blankets, but this is normal. Kun will just steal them back later. 

"So is the reason you chose going upstairs instead of staying downstairs because you don't want to cuddle?" Ten is wearing his most comical, over-the-top puppy dog eye expression. He looks absurd, but just this once-

Twice-

Oh, who is he kidding. Ten could get away with anything with him. Especially with him. Kun rolls eyes with a fond shake of his head and climbs in after him, pulling Ten close enough to make him the little spoon, and Ten makes a happy, content noise that makes Kun think that as much as he prefer the silent company of another weight in the bed, he doesn't mind this one bit. 

"Goodnight, Kunnie."

"Goodnight, Ten."

++

Two guys come into Ten's orbit pretending to be a couple during open house day, and that was their first mistake. 

Ten can see right through their facade like a matchmaking superhero and takes it as a message from whatever gods he and his funky matchmaking family pray to that he needs to put Dejun and Kunhang together for real, and that they  _ must _ complete this mission even if it's the last thing they do, which is might be since Ten has just left him a voicemessage saying he's on the way to Kun's office, and Kun may or may not commit murder in the most foul degree. 

It's a pity, really. Kun isn't a huge fan of street food. They're missing tacos for this. 

Kun loves tacos. 

It started as a 'let's go check out the new place' expedition that quickly evolved into a weekly pilgrimage into town. They have prickly pear margaritas which Ten sips on with wide eyes while Kun relays the next installment of the Saga featuring that guy from downstairs, Cha Hun, and Jaehyun, who waits outside the office building in an oddly similar candy pink punch buggy. Ten has offered multiple times (every weeks, actually, like clockwork sometime after the waitstaff put down their drinks and before his two shrimp and one veggie tacos arrive) to put them through the matchmaking machine, but that would require Ten to either scale 12 flights of stairs in the event the elevator broke yet again and then suffer the subzero plunge into the frozen wasteland of Suite 127. Also Kun doesn't know Hun like that, and it would be ill-mannered to offer him Ten's... services with their work relationship being virtually non-existent.

_ <<I mean- I'll have to ask Kunhang about it, but... uh... sure, I'm sure it'll be fine.>> _ Dejun stammers on the other end of the line, and Ten does a silent victory shake-Kun-like-a-strang-of-broken-Christmas-lights as he believes himself to be bamboozling Dejun when he's really just sending the poor guy into the advanced stages of regret and gay panic.

Because Kun could see it too, the way Kunhang made Dejun nervous, and how he'd blushed whenever he broke eye contact because he had to for the sake of maintaining a decent, coherent speech pattern. If even Kun, who has not a matchmaking bone in his body, could see it, that meant it was painfully obvious. 

So Ten is probably right.

And Dejun is probably panicking.

And Kunhang is probably sitting at home, totally unaware of what he's about to be roped into. 

And Kun is bemoaning the loss of tacos. 

++

They end up sharing street food. 

Kunhang actually ends up stealing Dejun's food and then Dejun retaliates by using his deadly finger flick but then asks if Kunhang wants more, and Kun knows that Ten is going to be gushing about this for the whole car ride home. 

Kun is instantly sated when Ten spots and orders tacos from a little food truck in the row on the street. The shells are much messier for people who can't unhinge their jaws and fit entire fists down their throats like Ten, but he feels less cranky with his carnitas and his little to-go cup of green Cholula. The night is warm but not sweltering, the breeze coming off of the ocean carries with it the sound of waves, and the little amber lights strung between posts is dim enough where Dejun's incessant blush is hidden, which means he feels more comfortable talking. His arm is bent at an angle so Kunhang can pull him or drag him at his leisure, and from the point of view of the possible Kundred of people also enjoying a night on the boardwalk, they look like any other couple on a double date. 

But this is not a date, and Ten's grasp on his arm is surely for stability purposes only and not because he's trying to look the part, because the age-old misconception about the relationship between two young men with zero-feet between them has been applied before without going to these lengths. He hides his face in the crook of Kun's neck when he laughs, and the smell of Ten's conditioner creates a plume of sweet honey each time he turns, and Kun will never admit it, but he's this close to stealing it next time he takes a shower.

Or maybe he won't. Ten will never let him hear the end of it if he finds out that Kun likes the way he smells, or that Kun likes it when Ten is this close to him. 

Because this is not a date, and Kun needs to take some ibuprofen and buy a carton of orange juice so the butterflies in his stomach don't get any stronger. 

++

The sun has long done to sleep and the bustle of the food truck festival has simmered down to a low rumble when the four decide to call it a night. Ten and Kun see them back to their car and wish them a safe trip in between polite hugs as pats on the back. Kun is talking to Dejun when he sees Kunhang whisper something to Ten that makes his face twist, as though a great secret has been revealed and his third eye has been opened. Dejun doesn't see it, and neither does Kunhang since his chin is tilted up to clear Ten's shoulder as their end their little embrace. Kun collapses into the driver's seat with a long huff. His body isn't used to being active for that long. He needs to get back into cardio. At this side, Ten is slumped with his knees against the dash, legs off. 

"Do you think we did it?" Kun asks. The queue to get out is taking forever to inch forward. Long enough for Kun to gather up the spare change he needs to pay for parking. Ten turns so his knees are bunched up against the door, his exhaustion reflecting off the window. He sees something… unnamable. It looks like melancholy, but Kun can’t be sure; it’s a first. 

"Not yet. But it's a step in the right direction." 

++

Kun is the Harry Potter basilisk of love, and Ten pointedly avoids making eye contact with him the next few days. This is concerning because the last time it happened, Kun had to drive to a bar full of scantily-clad men who called him 'honey' and 'dear' despite him being neither of those things. He was summoned specifically to unhandcuff Ten from a lawn chair and to tow him back to the house at Schrodinger's Dawn-o'clock. 

"Are you ok?" He asks, hoping it will remind Ten that there are other people who are going to either bear witness to or get wrapped up in whatever he's planning, but instead, he jumps. He must not have heard Kun pad in behind him. 

"Yeah, I'm fine," he smiles, cheeks reddening, "Why?"

Kun narrows his eyes, checks Ten's hands for his tell-tale finger-cracking giveaway and sees it. He shifts and ‘nevermind’s and goes back to his room. He'll have to keep an eye out for him. 

++

It takes two whole weeks of Ten not showing up in his candy pink punch buggy for Kun to wonder if he should call up every doctor friend he has and try to figure out if Ten has been replaced by an alien. It’s been like a ghost town in their house, and for once,  _ Kun _ is the one filing the space with conversation. Fifi stays firmly planted by Ten’s side, and they pass each other in the kitchen like two ships in the night. He could swear that the one time they came close, Ten actually  _ jumped _ , and Kun felt something in him chip away at the thought of having done something so outrageous that Ten is scared of him. He swears to find out what it is and to fix it even if it takes years. 

"Thinking about your guy?" Jaehyun says while leaning on his doorframe. "Haven't seen him in a while. Weird, right? Did you two have a fight?"

Kun shakes his head. ‘Destination wedding’ he lies. 

"Oh! Sounds like fun. I bet you miss him."

Kun makes a noise that's less of an agreement and more of a forceful exhalation through his nose. Jaehyun isn't wrong. 

Even though he's right there, Kun feels like he's losing him. 

++

Kun takes one long look at him and knows that he hasn't gotten much sleep, if any. 

"You need this more than I do." 

Ten takes the cup, smiling out of both thanks and from the amount of sheer irony that they share the same tastes in coffee. It's the smile that says he'd rather not be smiling at all, and it hurts Kun more than any amount of hours it would take to help him. The overwhelming urge to take Ten in his arms and kiss him and tell him everything is ok threatens to spill out of him, slick and shiny like an oil spill. He’s thought the second thing often; the first, with more and more frequency. 

His thoughts are getting out of hand. So much so that they threaten to swell and burst every time they’re near each other. It’s getting harder to push down the feelings when every look from Ten feels like it should be more. Yet it feels like he’s losing him. He’s not sure what he did before Ten was around. He’s not sure if he could go back. 

"Ten?"

His head snaps up. "Sorry, just... lost in thought." 

"That's been happening a lot recently. Do you wanna talk about it?" 

"Listen, I... I like you, Kun. We've been friends for a long time and I appreciate the way you listen and give honest feedback, no holds barred. You're weird and you have Old Man habits, but it's endearing." Kun is still listening, but it's easy to see the confusion on his face. Ten takes a deep breath. "I'm telling you this because I found you a match."

++

His name is Taeil, though his college friends all call him Jim. 

“Like The Office?” Kun asks with a feline tilt of his head. Taeil’s face lights up to 300 lumens. 

“ _ Exactly  _ like The Office!”

That’s how the night begins. 

++

Ten is asleep on the couch with a dog-eared copy of  _ Peter Pan _ on his lap, golden retriever snoozing on his lap. Kun tries his best to get the door open without-

_ -ccccrreeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK- _

“I’m awake! I’m totally awake!!!” 

-a sound. Oh well, so much for that one. Ten is still in the blindness stage of waking up and is sufficiently disoriented by the darkness that it takes several seconds for him to realize Kun is standing in the doorway. 

“You’re back! How was it?” 

He puts his jacket on the banister. “It went well.” 

“Plans for a second date?” 

“I don’t think so.” 

“Oh? That’s a shame. Well… I’ll keep an eye out. Hopefully it won’t take another four years to find you someone.”

“ _ I don’t want another match _ .” Kun says.

“What?” Ten asks, as though not wanting love was inconceivable. “Why?” 

With the weight of his truth and Ten’s eyes on him, the world slows to listen to the things Kun realized as he drove home after meeting his match. 

Because the only thing he could think of was how guilty he felt sitting there, taking up this man’s time when all he could think about was how unnatural it felt; how it should be him and Ten. How it should be them going out for dinners and walking along the sidewalk on the eve of summer. How it should be Ten talking 10,000 miles per hour with lights in his eyes large enough to rival stars and Kun rolling his eyes and kissing him on the cheek, then maybe on the lips, and then hugging him and not letting go for a long time. 

Maybe his body knew all along that it should have been Ten from the start because the more he thinks about it, the more the explosive opal plume beneath his ribcage screams  _ Yes! Yes! That’s it!  _ as though it were something on his mental laundry list that he’d been trying to remember and finally did. Being with Ten is like being at home. 

The matchmaking genes weren’t wrong- Taeil was a great guy. He was a charming gentleman who was easy to talk to and easy to like. His style would have been boring to others but his energy matched Kun’s perfectly. But even if Taeil has the same raw humor and quiet observations and taste in activities and living style, he isn’t Ten.

And because of that, Kun gave him the gentlest of let downs and raced home. 

“Because I want  _ you _ .” A quiet gasp escapes Ten, whose eyes are wide as saucers as Kun continues, “Listen, I--- I’m not good at these things. And… and maybe I don’t know what love is. That’s usually your domain, but all I know is that I see you and the sun shines brighter, and that it feels like I’m singing in a thunderstorm with the rain pouring down over me, and everything feels right. It feels like this could be forever and I  _ know _ , I know forever doesn’t mean much in the eyes of things that last less than a blink in the eyes of the universe, but it feels like it could be. Like this is it. And it’s you.” 

Maybe it’s love. Maybe it’s something akin. And Kun has only been certain of a few things, but he’s certain of Ten. 

And Ten, much to his horror and confusion, starts crying.

++

It’s ironic, he’ll admit, that Ten is now the one crying while Kun holds him. After desperate pleas to tell him what’s wrong and being told ‘nothing’, Ten had mumbled that they were happy tears. Relieved tears. Disbelief tears. Kun holds him through it and rocks him back and forth while his heart sings that this is  _ right _ even when his brain tells him to put a pin in that until things have calmed down.

Another wipe of the eyes. Another trumpet blow into a tissue. “I’m ok. I’m more than ok. I just… I’m in shock. I never thought that things work out this way. That it was even possible to have you.” 

“You…?” He asks. He almost doesn’t want to say it, as thought it’ll burst the bubble and this magic will disappear forever. 

But Ten is confident, nodding, and  _ oh god this is happening _ , Kun has no idea what to do with himself. “For a while now, actually. I used to go through my roster all the time because I wanted you to have the best person possible, because you deserve it, Kun. I don’t think you realize how much you deserve it. And when I went through, I didn’t think anyone was good enough for you. 

“But then when I was talking to Yuta, he asked if I really hadn’t found anyone or if I was just saving you for myself, which is a thing matchmakers aren’t supposed to do, and I got worried that maybe I  _ was  _ sabotaging you, so I started going through my roster again. And I think… I think that’s when I figured out that I had fallen for your laugh and the way you thrift for books and your philosophy on happiness. A million little traits that had me enamored. And then… we put Kunhang and Dejun together. 

“Kunhang thanked me on the boardwalk, and he said that he knew a guy who could use a match. Taeil. I went through my roster, mismatch after mismatch, until I got to you. And realized you’d be perfect. And realized how much that hurt. That’s when I knew for sure.” 

Kun furrows his brow. 

“But you sent me anyway.” 

“Because I wanted you to be happy.” Ten says, and it’s so….  _ Him  _ to want others to be happy even when it hurts.. 

“ _ You make me happy _ .” 

And if Kun could take that pain away, he would. Maybe he can. He’ll pull all the things that Ten has set aside for others into their own little microverse inside the little eggshell-blue house in the middle of the quiet street. And maybe it won’t be perfect- things rarely are- but it’ll be  _ theirs _ , and that’s what’s important.


	2. Epilogue

  
“We told you you’d go well together!” Mrs. Lee and Tern laugh. Ten is doing his ‘aww come on’ slump as his mom and sister rattle off the seemingly endless number of times they told Ten to just go for it and he didn’t.

  
“But you also told me that matchmakers don’t take partners!” 

  
“How do you think I had you and your sister?”

  
"Kuuuuuuuuun!!! My mom and sister are being meeeeaaaaaan!!!" 

  
Ten is not a dumb. He's sort of like a golden retriever. 

Sort of like Fearless, who is sniffing a flower bed. 

  
He sleeps well and eats well and loves with a whole heart. He's forgiving and friendly and everyone just loves him. He’s irresistible when he smiles and even Kun can't say no to his puppy dog eyes as they pass by the ice cream parlor followed by immediate puppy dog smiles when he shakes his head and starts heading for the counter. Ten always gets chocolate. Kun gets mint. Fearless gets a large cup of whipped cream. 

  
Both of them smile. 

  
So does Kun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole story feels like a fever dream. Thanks for sticking through it!  
> Come and poke me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Porteaux_Perah?s=09)!


End file.
